First period
- Jake Evans may have just saved a goal with a stick-check after both Noah Dobson and Mike Matheson got caught behind their net.
- He wasn’t able to bail them out a second time. Off the next faceoff, Carolina worked the puck to the slot and Seth Jarvis shot through a Matheson screen to open the scoring 30 seconds in.
- The Hurricanes’ defence collapses on Juraj Slafkovský at the side of the net, and that leaves Cole Caufield all alone at the top of crease to easily
Cole Caufield answers immediately to tie the game 1-1 and the game is just a minute old
— Scott Matla (@scottmatla.bsky.social) May 21, 2026 at 9:21 PM
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- Zachary Bolduc gets the puck right in the slot in open space and tries to tuck the puck through Frederik Andersen’s five-hole as he slides across, but the goalie makes the stop.
- An excellent passing play sees a great pass from Caufield completely fool Andersen. All Evans has to do is deflect the puck in, but it banks off his stick wide.
- Sean Walker steps in Nick Suzuki’s way as the Hurricanes go on an attack, Walker is getting called for interference, but Suzuki is also going off for embellishment to send the game to four-on-four.
- Phillip Danault races in behind the Carolina defence, loads up a shot, and puts Montreal in the lead.
Phil Danault(???) On a breakaway(??????) 2-1 Habs!
— Scott Matla (@scottmatla.bsky.social) May 21, 2026 at 9:26 PM
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- The crowd is silent. Neither they nor the team were expecting this response after the quick goal.
- Carolina can’t slow the Habs down in transition. This is the most freedom the Canadiens have been able to operate with all post-season.
- Jaccob Slavin’s time is taken away as he flips the puck across to Jalen Chatfield, who gets crunched into the glass and turns the puck over. Alexandre Texier takes advantage with an open shot for a goal, and the Habs have scored the most goals against the Hurricanes in any game of this post-season just 8:11 into the contest.
Carolina flat out gets outworked by Danault and Texier on this goal Rod has to be seething on the bench
— Scott Matla (@scottmatla.bsky.social) May 21, 2026 at 9:34 PM
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- The Hurricanes see another rush chance developing and Slafkovský gets taken down to slide into the net so he can’t accept a pass.
- Carolina’s defence doesn’t know how to handle this speed. Ivan Demidov earns yet another breakaway for Montreal, and he capitalized on the chance to make it 4-1.
Ivan Demidov sends Freddie Andersen to the shadow realm and it's 4-1 Habs!
— Scott Matla (@scottmatla.bsky.social) May 21, 2026 at 9:41 PM
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- Alexandre Carrier gives Carolina a bit of a reprieve as he gets his stick into the face of Andrei Svechnikov, and they will have a power play after a TV timeout.
- The power play lasts 27 seconds as Sebastian Aho attempts to stop a short-handed counter by getting his hands too high on a hit on Evans.
- As if being down three goals wasn’t bad enough, the Hurricanes are watching Jakub Dobeš’s coolly swallow up every puck that comes his way.
- Slafkovský got too fancy trying to set up a pass when he had the puck at the top of the crease. Just shoot the puck on Andersen at every opportunity.
- Montreal kept the pressure on all period and Carolina still doesn’t know how to defend against it. They’re trying to squeeze off the puck-carrier and then getting burned on the passes. Just keep this up an add to the goal total over the final 40 minutes.
- Caufield gets a breakaway as the Hurricanes are again too aggressive. He hits the post.
- As the play goes the other way, Eric Robinson gets a lane to net and fires his shot off the post and in. It could have been 5-1. It’s now 4-2.
- Carolina is beginning to look more like an NHL playoff team now. The Habs can’t just speed out of the zone looking for odd-man rushes now. Some proper hockey is required.
- The Hurricanes are beginning to engage their cycling game as well. This game is far from over.
- Montreal is trying to survive now. It’s a dangerous game against a deep team like this.
- Constant Carolina pressure right now.
- After a long shift and an icing for Montreal, Suzuki comes out and does a great job behind the Carolina goal line to win several battles and give the Canadiens a rare offensive opportunity in this frame.
- Montreal isn’t able to do much right now but ice the puck. Three more minutes of this long-change period.
- Dobeš has the puck hop over his pad and roll behind him, but past the post.
- Caufield has the puck come to him at the side of the net, but it’s behind the goal line by the time he gets it and he can’t send it in.
- Matheson and Svechnikov get matching roughing minors as the Hurricanes get a little frustrated with not being able to shrink the margin.
- Dobeš makes a 10th save of the period to preserve the 4-2 lead and get his team to the intermission. They actually held Carolina to fewer shots than in the wide-open first period, though the looks were more dangerous off the cycle in the middle frame.
Third period
- Montreal is trying to play keepaway this period. They managed to get the first minute off the clock with possession in their own zone.
- Oliver Kapanen’s line with Zachary Bolduc and Kirby Dach gets a tip chance after good shift in the offensive zone. Montreal will need some of those in this period to break the pressure.
- Jordan Martinook trips Kaiden Guhle in the corner, and now Montreal has a power-play chance to get a little breathing room.
- Just one actual scoring chance from Slafkovský, but two more minutes are taken off the clock.
- The Hurricanes think they have the Canadiens trapped, but Guhle makes a long pass from behind his net up to Caufield, who hands it off to Slafkovský through a tip from Suzuki. Slafkovský’s curl of the puck through a defending Svechnikov isn’t clean, but he sticks with it, regathers the puck, and sends it through Andersen to give Montreal a three-goal lead once more.
Absolute filth from Juraj Slafkovsky to make it 5-2
— Scott Matla (@scottmatla.bsky.social) May 21, 2026 at 11:25 PM
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- Shots are 5-1 Montreal in this period. An impressive display with a multi-goal lead coming in.
- Carolina seems resigned to the loss right now, but that doesn’t mean they can’t put together a good shift to make this a game again.
- You can hear every carve of a skate blade right now, a couple seconds delayed as it is on this Sportsnet broadcast.
- That changes with some half-hearted boos from the shocked fans.
- Guhle steps up to hit Jackson Blake at the blue line, but the puck was intercepted by a teammate before it got there and goalie is dinged for interference. I like the aggressive approach at the blue line by both Habs involved in the sequence regardless.
- No shots on the power play, and the earlier one Carolina did have has been taken off the counter. They have zero through 14:30 seconds on the third period, on home ice, trailing by two goals.
- They toss one at Dobeš with 5:17 to go to break that goose egg.
- Andersen goes to the bench after the TV timeout. The fans are pouring out of the building.
- Slafkovský hits the empty net. Montreal has scored more goals tonight versus Carolina than each of the Senators and Flyers did in their four-game series.
- Lots of smiles on the bench, probably because Slafkovský finally beat the force field in the vacated cage.
- It looks like a game in the COVID bubble right now. The Lenovo Center is empty.
- An impressive game from Montreal, who dominated the run-and-gun opening period, survived the second when the style shifted, and took full command of the final frame, allowing just two shots.
- We can surely expect a different Carolina team on Saturday, but Montreal has one of the four wins they need to advance to the Stanley Cup Final.
EOTP 3 Stars
3) It’s such a strange thing
2) Vacation’s over
1) Perhaps the most important goal of the game tonight
